Ice Mountain

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 8/21/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Climbed Ice today with North Apostle - I will report conditions separately for N Apostle. There is an abundance of loose rock throughout this entire route. The gullies are so dangerously loose, and the climbing portions of the route over to Ice is also very loose. My climbing partner and I went one at a time in a lot of these sections, including the crux. We took a class 4 line to the summit that was fun and spicy, and not as loose. We had the summit to ourselves and only saw one person along this route all day. The summit register is also wet and disintegrating. Fantastic day, although long! We parked at the bottom of the 2WD road due to recent reports - but honestly the road is in decent condition and both myself and my friend felt like it was hyped up more than it should have been. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 8/20/2023, By: climbingyogi
Info: My partner and I ascended a gully climber's left of the standard gully and felt like it was closer to class 4, but shorter. We descended the standard gully and felt like it was class 3, but longer. Be aware of loose rock on Ice as others have mentioned, especially in the gullies. We took our time in the gullies and went one at a time. Great day out and lucked out with good weather all day! Didn't see a single other person on the mountains, but met some nice guys camping out in the basin who ended up giving us a ride down the 4wd road to our cars at the 2wd lot. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 8/11/2023, By: truekyle
Info: I personally think ice mountain is under rated. It' ABSOLUTELY has a solid class 4 move. Route finding was actually pretty easy. One spot coming out of tree line can throw you off. Started at the lower th and was on the summit of ice at 1030 and NP at 1115 ish after a 6 am start. I'm a pretty fast hiker so be sure to set aside some good time for weather. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 7/30/2023, By: Ssgustafson
Info: Gorgeous day in Apostle Basin! We were kind of surprised to find a good use trail through the forest "bushwhack" section making that section very straightforward and enjoyable. One or two small patches of avoidable snow persist in the basin (and were a short-lived, but nice relief from the endless moraine!). Route is otherwise full summer conditions. We saw two guys climb the Refrig as we traversed from NA to Ice, and after joining them on the summit, jealously watched them ski down to the lake. Couloir is shown in the attached pic of Ice from NA. 

Route: The Refrigerator
Posted On: 7/31/2023, By: vertical_volume
Info: Climbed and skied Ice via the Refrigerator. The fridge was softer than expected when we got to the base of it around 8:40 am, we were not sinking in the snow at all on the bootpack up though, so it had a reasonable freeze underneath. Relatively quick climb up it, about an hour. Scrambled up to the summit and hung out and chatted with a nice group up top. Dropped in at 11:15 am with good corn, we both side stepped the choke given the amount of rocks that were lying on top of the snow below it and I'm not that confident (or skilled?) of a skier yet. I was able to side step it with a few cm of wiggle room with 176 cm skis. Still in skiable condition, not sure for how long though, we skied almost all the way down to the lake. Overall, this is a fantastic line. 

Route: Refrigerator Couloir
Posted On: 7/23/2023, By: Jhorne6
Info: Thanks to prior reports providing great beta I can confirm that the Fridge is in very good condition. Perfect neve from apron to the top. I would estimate it will be in this condition for another week or two. Great climb on a great peak. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 7/18/2023, By: bsiegs
Info: A couple avoidable snowfields as you make your way up to the Ice/NA saddle. Alternative is mix of fun boulder hopping and not so fun scree/dirt. The Ice Mtn ridge is almost entirely dry but does have a fair bit of loose rock. I felt the climbing was more class 4, but I suppose one could probably keep it to class 3 with some more intentional route finding. Glissaded the main snowfield back down for a break from the rocks. Still, lots of cuts today from slipping on scree and bushwhacking above the creek. 

Route: Refrigerator Couloir
Posted On: 7/16/2023, By: pbergmaier
Info: Climbed the standard route up Ice but got a good view up Refrigerator along the way from the basin below. The couloir was still quite filled in with ski tracks maybe a week old. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 7/16/2023, By: pbergmaier
Info: The North Apostle / Ice Mountain standard route is 99% free of snow. We summited (in order) North Apostle, Ice, and West Apostle. We only had to cross one short 25-ft patch of bulletproof snow (which will probably be gone in a week or two) in the upper basin below Refrigerator Couloir. Speaking of which, from below it appeared that Refrigerator was still quite in. We brought ice axe and crampons but never used either. The class 3 section near the top of Ice is spicy and loose as heck. After Ice, we made the journey over to West Apostle via Roach's description. Do not attempt if you're not prepared. Lots of routefinding (stay as high as possible on the way from the gully over to the saddle), but only one very short 5-ft snow crossing going up to West Apostle that I'm sure could be avoided. If you go from West Apostle down to Lake Ann (or vice versa), you're probably a glutton for punishment. That being said, there's still a short 15-ft strip of snow that the "trail" crosses around 12,700'. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 7/10/2023, By: cloudkicker
Info: I did not climb, but got some pics from the Sheep Rock Mtn area and also from the CDT. Lots of snow still on the mountain, and it looks (from a distance) like the Refrigerator Couloir is still in. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: osprey
Info: Instead of trying to cross the steam in the usual place where the trail leads down to the stream above timberline, I stayed on the west side of the stream until it emerged from beneath the snow which made an easy crossing. Immediately after crossing the stream I entered a gully which curved around to the south leading directly to the Pencil Couloir. This Couloir provides the most direct but difficult path to the upper basin. An alternative way to the high basin is on a less steep slope to the right of the Couloir and is how I descended. The top of the Refrigerator Couloir is guarded by a huge, overhanging cornice. I crawled under the cornice on all fours scraping my helmet on the underside of the cornice. Snow ends a short distance after the cornice and the final climb to the summit is a rock scramble. Snow Couloir climbs can vary considerably in difficulty based on weather conditions and both the Pencil and Refrigerator Couloirs had were steep with very hard snow and I considered both couloirs to be serious climbs. 

Route: Refrigerator Couloir
Posted On: 6/19/2023, By: slawrence2011
Info: Finally skied the fridge clean after taking a couple whips last season at the exact same week with much less snow and less freeze. Started from the lower lake Ann TH at 4. Trail is melted for the most part until you start climbing into apostle basin, more and more sloppy snow patches in the trees, with good postholes through them, but they are deep and abundant, slowing progress. The bigger thing slowing my progress were all the low height trees blocking my skis on my pack. Shortly above the basin, continuous snow, I elected to climb the pencil chute, and there was a very nice boot track all the way from leaving the basin to the summit, given how deep it was, they must have downclimbed. This allowed me to climb to right below the fridge couloir in hiking boots before switching to crampons. Even though the freeze was solid due to clear skies, snow was punchy at times on the apron. I followed tracks which helped. There was no choke crux that I saw. Where it was 1.5 - 2 ski widths last season, it was about 3-4 ski lengths today, and very short. The snow surface was not very flat though, minor sun cups, and some boot packs. Summited around 10, I never like the mixed scrambling to the summit, but there was a good track, and a short crux with thin snow through a steep rock section. Waited at the summit for 30 minutes before dropping in at 11 to near perfect conditions, a little hard, but the edge had been taken off the sun cups. The best skiing of the day was from the apron to the lake, totally smooth corn. Pencil chute was very bootpacked, though wide enough to ski the whole way, I side slipped a couple steep off camber sections. Stayed on the east side of the basin and skied to the head of the basin. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 9/25/2022, By: cj85
Info: The approach up to the saddle is dry. However, some snow covers the north side of the ridge and the crux of the route. Micro spikes were handy. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 9/18/2022, By: VeraUndertow
Info: Hiked North Apostle and traversed to Ice, then stayed ridge proper as much as possible to West Apostle and then over to Lake Ann Pass today. The only real snow that impacted my climb was the steep class 3 section right before the summit of Ice. I stayed climbers right in the gully on a class 4 section that was dry. Micro spikes might be useful if it turns to ice in the next few days. Otherwise the route was still in summer conditions. The ridge to West Apostle is spicy as advertised, I wish I had taken detailed notes but I was able to stay ridge proper or bipass every obstacle on the south side of the ridge without loosing to much elevation and it was a fun route finding challenge on solid rock. Took 9.5 hours round trip from Winfield parking lot. About 3.5 hours to the saddle of N Apostle and Ice, then 20 minutes up N Apostle, 30 minutes over to Ice, 1.25 hrs to the saddle of ice/west and another 30 up West and then 1.25 to lake Ann Pass and 2.5 hours back with some jogging down the beautiful CDT. 

Route: Ice Northeast Ridge + North Apostle
Posted On: 7/24/2022, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: Huron parking lot was packed as usual. Had a bit of trouble bushwhacking to get above tree line in the basin but after that the route was cairned until the gully leading up to the saddle. The gully was very loose and very tedious. Ascent of North from saddle is quick. Best part of the day was heading up from the saddle to Ice (fun scenery and good climbing). Descending the gully from the saddle was awful. Other groups opted to head over to West and we had greatly wished we had done so too but we did not have good route info between Ice and West. We would recommend researching beta on all three as a combo (N—>Ice—>W).